Monday, April 22, 2013

Jake Gyllenhaal on a SoHo stroll in New York on Friday. Jake wasn't just snapped by the paparazzi. A Chinese blogger posted these pictures of Jake walking into his/her shot:

And here's Jake in front of SoulCycle NoHo:

I listened to this chapter of The Great Gatsby last week; it's Nick Carraway describing the city:

I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others–poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for the solitary restaurant dinner– young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.

Again at eight o’clock, when the dark lanes of the Forties were five deep with throbbing taxi cabs, bound for the theatre district, I felt a sinking in my heart. Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted cigarettes outlined unintelligible gestures inside. Imagining that I, too, was hurrying toward gaiety and sharing their intimate excitement, I wished them well.

Australian director Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel about ambition, materialist success, identity, romantic obsession and failure is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year. Besides reading Fitzgerald's silky, sinuous prose on the page, you can now prepare yourself with this audiobook read by Jake Gyllenhaal. So smooth, cool and balanced is the Academy Award nominee's narration that it begs the question: why wasn't he chosen to play Nick Carraway instead of Tobey Maguire? His voice mellifluously conveys the beautiful rhythms of Fitzgerald's unsurpassed writing yet is supple enough to capture Carraway's satirical amusement at the doings of his cousin, Daisy, and her brutish husband, Tom Buchanan, and the weary melancholy of his grand disillusion - embodied by the titular Jay Gatsby, whose love for Daisy inspires the grandest of illusions. My only gripe is that Gyllenhaal doesn't quite capture the famously elegiac ending, both defiant and deflated. And the crashing piano doesn't help.

Amen to the Tobey Maguire casting. I haven't reached the end of my listening yet, so I can't comment. Nothing can match actually reading the end for the first time, so I don't think I'll be disappointed.A few shots from last week's gala for the Academy of American poets at Lincoln Center:

Thursday, April 18, 2013

In the classic Gyllenhaal tradition, we have more breaking news today. It doesn't rain but pour!

The good folks at Jessica Biel Central found some Nailed stills. They've been hot on the scent of Nailed news, and this is more evidence that maybe, just maybe, the movie will finally see the light of screen.

And those stills? I think we need to see this movie!

The cast and crew of Prisoners. From Facebook:

Officially finished today on Prisoners. One of the hardest movies I had the opportunity to work on, but I'm so proud of the results and know this is going to be a fantastic film to see on the big screen. It has been a pleasure and honor to work with a truly talented group of filmmakers and an amazing and gracious cast.

Here's a sneak peek of the sneak peek: Photo of Jake at the 11th annual Poetry and the Creative Mind benefit: Until I saw this on IHJ, I had been afraid this FB photo would be the only one in existence! (Nailed photos courtesy of Jessica Biel Central.

Yes, that Jake. Jake Gyllenhaal, actor, our Spring Benefit honoree, and longtime supporter of Edible Schoolyard NYC, is taking you and your friends on a private Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 tour. He knows the garden well — he planted a pear tree in it at the groundbreaking ceremony in 2010. Oh, and he’s staying for lunch! Famed Brooklyn restaurant Roberta’s is transporting its pizza oven to P.S. 216 to prepare lunch from the garden, in the garden, for you and your guests.

Since 2008, Roberta’s has been serving some of Brooklyn’s finest fare, with an emphasis on local, sustainably sourced ingredients. In August 2011, The New York Times named Roberta’s ‘one of the more extraordinary restaurants in the United States.’

For up to ten people. Date to be mutually agreed upon. All food costs included. No alcohol permitted.

The winning bid was $14,000, though that did not draw the night's biggest prize.

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Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake is the kind of guy who can do a spot-on impression of someone you work with. He plays guitar and has a great voice. Kids and dogs love him. He loves his mom and sister and girlfriend. He's perfect. Too bad he's ugly. ~ Natalie Portman